Off-limit to the public for over 35 years, Hart Island — a mile-long island off the eastern coast of the Bronx — has remained one of New York City’s most closely guarded secrets. It is the home of New York’s “potter’s field,” for those who can’t afford to pay for burial, or whose identity is…

This post was written by Twila Rios, Summer Intern in the department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections. The New-York Historical Society has two collections of photographer Claire Yaffa: the Claire Yaffa Children with AIDS photograph collection and the Claire Yaffa New York Foundling Hospital photograph collection. A portion of the Children with Aids photograph…